New 'Daily Show' host faces scrutiny for tweets

Within hours of the announcement that he had been named the new host of "The Daily Show," comedian Trevor Noah was subjected to the full scrutiny of the Internet. As potential audience members scoured Noah's past work and social media presence for more clues to this South African comedian, they uncovered many posts on his Twitter account that they deemed offensive to women or Jews.

Comedy Central announced Monday that Noah, 31, would succeed Jon Stewart as anchor of "The Daily Show," its satirical late-night news program, when Stewart steps down this year. Though Noah has performed stand-up comedy around the world, he is not widely known in the United States.

On Twitter, where he has had an account since 2009 and accumulated more than 2 million followers, Noah often posts irreverent statements that reflect his interests in popular culture, global politics and issues of race. As with many comedians, Noah's jokes can test the boundaries of what is socially permissible and what is in bad taste.

In several posts, Noah came across as mocking or derisive of women. In one from 2011, he writes: "Oh yeah the weekend. People are gonna get drunk & think that I'm sexy!" a quote that he attributes to "fat chicks everywhere."

In a post from last year, he quotes another Twitter user who writes, "When a woman is loved correctly, she becomes 10 times the woman she was before," to which Noah adds: "So she gets fat?"

Noah has also posted jokes about Jews and about Israel. A post from 2010 reads, "South Africans know how to recycle like israel knows how to be peaceful."

Noah seemed aware Tuesday of the controversy surrounding his tweets. Just before 9 a.m. Eastern time, he posted: "Twitter does not have enough characters to respond to all the characters on Twitter." The tweet was deleted shortly after.